Another Free-To-Fee Approach

"Jupiter's latest research indicates that there is no obvious killer-application online service that consumers would pay for," said David Card, Jupiter Research vice president and senior analyst. "Companies should bundle online services and price them at less than thirty dollars per year. When transitioning from free to fee, service aggregators must solicit early consumer feedback and promote packages with e-mail aggressively."

Jupiter Media Metrix reports that more than two-thirds of US consumers would not pay for any services on the Internet, including enhanced e-mail, instant messaging or file-sharing capabilities. According to a new Jupiter Research report, consumers voiced greater resistance about paying for online services (69 percent) than they did about paying for content (63 percent).

Although about one-third of online adults in the US use a free service as their primary personal e-mail account and over 60 percent use an ISP...
- only 12 percent would be willing to pay for enhanced e-mail - eight percent of online adults would pay to access recruitment and job sites
- six percent would pay for enhanced instant messaging and file-sharing capabilities
- respondents said they are least likely to pay for personals and dating services (two percent).

The survey indicates that consumers are less confused about where they might purchase online services than where they would purchase content. - 47 percent would feel most comfortable with paying their ISPs for online services - only 16 percent paying their portals

According to Jupiter, ISPs that have an existing billing relationship with their customers should have the easiest time selling services, with portals becoming other logical aggregators.